How to properly recover after a Half-Ironman 17

So after Saturday’s Half-Ironman race I decided that there was only one way to recover:

• Step 1: Depart (limping) finish area 90 minutes after completing race
• Step 2: Race to the airport 80 miles away (via car, not biking/running or swimming)
• Step 3: Catch a flight that goes south.  Like say 3 hours south.
• Step 4: Arrive at destination.  In a different country.  Preferably a different time zone.
• Step 5: Order a Margarita or two..and enjoy.

While normally I plan international trips a bit more in advance (a few weeks), this one had only about 4 days of planning.  My parents were going on vacation to Ixtapa for a week and in short convinced me to take the short three hour flight from Oceanside down to Ixtapa.  And the flight was super-cheap.  So here I be.  Well, it’s short lived – only three days, heading back tonight.

But I wasn’t a completely unproductive person.  I got in about a 45 minute easy ride yesterday and a 40 minute run today.  Plus I snorkeled, that’s intense physical exertion right there.  The ride was really nice – they’ve got this 10KM or so perfectly paved bike path (no, not a running path – a bonafide ‘Ciclopista Plano’) that wanders through a nature preserve and then along the coast.  Rather cool actually, even wandered by some gator's (or are they crocs?).  I eventually ended up at a deserted beach, where I took the below photo of myself.  Well actually, my camera situated on a coconut took it.  Yes, seriously…a coconut.  I have a photo of the coconut too.

(Yes, I had my bike with me – what else was I supposed to with it after the race?)

And here’s Mr. Gator hanging off the side of the bike path down a bit near the water.  I think he wanted dinner.  I think he might of thought I looked like dinner.  Perhaps like a big packet of gel.

And here’s my departing the scene of Mr. Croc after contemplating his dinner choices.  Practicing my aero per my lessons learned from the weekend..6 seconds at a time.

(Note: I’m becoming the grand-master of using my little camera to videotape myself and then grab screen captures for photos, much easier than timing it to the 10 seconds the auto-release has)

But I was productive in other ways.  In 35 minutes swimming today I covered roughly 50 yards while snorkeling (two days previous I covered 1.2 miles in the same time period).  I saw a few fish.  Here’s the obligatory bad blue fish photo.  One fish, not two fish or red fish.

And then after I was done chasing the local fish I would sit on the bottom of the ocean, and stare up at the sky and blow bubbles.  And then take photos of the bubbles.  Yes, I’m easily amused.  Here’s my bubble blowing art:

Occasionally I’d hike a few hundred yards away and look at the pokey plants.  And take a few photos.

After all of that, I’d sit around and watch the sunset.  And eat some nachos and drink some more margaritas.  And stuff myself with very good sit down Mexican food that’s cheaper than Taco Bell.

And then…I’d repeat it again another day.

Unfortunately, now I have to catch my plane back to reality.  And reality is 44* and raining.  Reality sucks.

How to properly recover after a Half-Ironman 0

So after Saturday’s Half-Ironman race I decided that there was only one way to recover:

• Step 1: Depart (limping) finish area 90 minutes after completing race
• Step 2: Race to the airport 80 miles away (via car, not biking/running or swimming)
• Step 3: Catch a flight that goes south.  Like say 3 hours south.
• Step 4: Arrive at destination.  In a different country.  Preferably a different time zone.
• Step 5: Order a Margarita or two..and enjoy.

While normally I plan international trips a bit more in advance (a few weeks), this one had only about 4 days of planning.  My parents were going on vacation to Ixtapa for a week and in short convinced me to take the short three hour flight from Oceanside down to Ixtapa.  And the flight was super-cheap.  So here I be.  Well, it’s short lived – only three days, heading back tonight.

But I wasn’t a completely unproductive person.  I got in about a 45 minute easy ride yesterday and a 40 minute run today.  Plus I snorkeled, that’s intense physical exertion right there.  The ride was really nice – they’ve got this 10KM or so perfectly paved bike path (no, not a running path – a bonafide ‘Ciclopista Plano’) that wanders through a nature preserve and then along the coast.  Rather cool actually, even wandered by some gator's (or are they crocs?).  I eventually ended up at a deserted beach, where I took the below photo of myself.  Well actually, my camera situated on a coconut took it.  Yes, seriously…a coconut.  I have a photo of the coconut too.

(Yes, I had my bike with me – what else was I supposed to with it after the race?)

And here’s Mr. Gator hanging off the side of the bike path down a bit near the water.  I think he wanted dinner.  I think he might of thought I looked like dinner.  Perhaps like a big packet of gel.

And here’s my departing the scene of Mr. Croc after contemplating his dinner choices.  Practicing my aero per my lessons learned from the weekend..6 seconds at a time.

(Note: I’m becoming the grand-master of using my little camera to videotape myself and then grab screen captures for photos, much easier than timing it to the 10 seconds the auto-release has)

But I was productive in other ways.  In 35 minutes swimming today I covered roughly 50 yards while snorkeling (two days previous I covered 1.2 miles in the same time period).  I saw a few fish.  Here’s the obligatory bad blue fish photo.  One fish, not two fish or red fish.

And then after I was done chasing the local fish I would sit on the bottom of the ocean, and stare up at the sky and blow bubbles.  And then take photos of the bubbles.  Yes, I’m easily amused.  Here’s my bubble blowing art:

Occasionally I’d hike a few hundred yards away and look at the pokey plants.  And take a few photos.

After all of that, I’d sit around and watch the sunset.  And eat some nachos and drink some more margaritas.  And stuff myself with very good sit down Mexican food that’s cheaper than Taco Bell.

And then…I’d repeat it again another day.

Unfortunately, now I have to catch my plane back to reality.  And reality is 44* and raining.  Reality sucks.

Oceanside 70.3 Race Report (aka: There be big hills in California) 21

Remember yesterday’s post about how the Oceanside area is beautiful?  Well, it is – that’s still true.  Except, I probably should have withheld a bit of judgement until AFTER I had to cycle over 56 miles of hills.  In.the.wind.

With that, here’s the run down.

Swim:

I’m slowly starting to get down the whole art of arrival into transition area at a reasonable time.  I used to get in WAY to early and was standing around bored.  Now I’m getting it a bit closer.  The organizers here clearly have their stuff together.  There were no lines for anything such as body marking or entry into transition area (despite having 2,000 people milling about).  Well, there were short lines for the bathrooms right before start.  But umm…cold water..wetsuit warmer?

(Moments before the pro’s started, the singing of the National Anthem)
I got setup pretty quickly in what clearly the most ghetto pre-determined slot available.  There were actually garbage cans in my slot (which we moved).  The good part of having a slot up against the fence is you can just lean your bike there instead of battling with the bar trying to get it out/in. 

(My bike spot’s sprawling estate - taken afterwards)

Oh right…the swim…

I swam. Really, how much more can you say about the swim?  Ok, I guess I can say more.  The swim is in a protected harbor/channel, the ‘start’ is about 100 yards from where you get in the water.  THAT WAS AWESOME!  You get a short warm-up, and your body adjusts to the 59* water.  Once you got there, you had about a minute to chill. 

I stared off on the front edge and then slowly drifted in behind once the local swim-boys got out and about.  I didn’t have too many issues with sighting, the buoys were plentiful and colorful.  As we made the turn back there’s a section that’s fairly exposed to some of the inbound waves.  This created some fun rollers.  Although, judging by the ‘carnage’ out there, most people didn’t find it fun.  Many swimmers littered about looking confused, tired and seasick (it was a bit tricky sighting over the rollers).  I just pressed on.  The last 100 yards or so into arriving back was a bit messy.  It was like being at the start again, lots of kicking/pushing/etc… Oh well.

T1 was relatively uneventful.  It’s a long run, maybe 2 minutes.  I started off from the water running what had to have been a 4/min sprint pace down the carpet.  Not sure why, my body was just thrilled to be running and not a fish anymore.

(Photo from Monica, it’s kinda funny the expression I have on my face.)

The Bike:

The bike course is incredibly scenic.  It wanders up the coast for a while, and then eventually turns into Camp Pendleton (Marine Corps Base) and up into ‘the hills’.

(From ASI photo, somewhere near the start)

The first part of the course I was cruising, averaging in the 20-21MPH range, and easily 22+ on the flats.  Down in aero and life was grand.  Well, except for the fact that my stomach was staging a strike for the first 30 miles.  That’s fine, I brought in scab labor instead (water bottles from the Marines).  Stomach: 0 Me: 1.

At around the 30 mile marker it occurred to me that I was slowly working me way along a bit of a valley floor, and that the only way out was up via a big ass hill.  The kinda hill you see little ‘ants’ in the distance slowly going up.  The kinda hill where your top speed is 6.2MPH.  The kinda hill that…I actually enjoyed.  Why?  Because my back and stomach were much happier with me standing up.  So I got 6-8 minutes to stand up.  And then you got to go down the backside hill, at 35MPH. Woohoo!

The woohoo was short lived.  There was another hill.  And another…and another.  Ok, note do self – I need more hill work.  But more than hill work – I need more aero work.  Like hours upon hours of straight hour.  My back was the single biggest limiter after about 90-120 minutes of aero.

People were complaining about the high winds…but honestly, I didn’t notice.  After the last two weeks’s worth of cycling training rides – this wind was nothing (although it clearly slowed me down on course, Mr. GPS tells me that).

(Photo courtesy ASI photography, at around the 15-20 mile marker)

Oh…I almost forgot.  I got an aero water bottle for Christmas, and got it all hooked up last night before the race.  Except I never quite tried it out before hand.  Which was too bad really.  Cause I would have realized that the straw (even using the long one) was too short, thus I couldn’t extract any liquid from said bottle – defeating the whole purpose of having an easy to access water bottle.  Doh, lesson learned.

After 56 miles of joyful time spent with my trusty Fuji (and no flat tires this time!), it was off to the run.

Run

Sure, like everyone I have a big checklist of things that I pack – all separated out by sport.  On that list was race belt.  And don’t worry, the race belt was with me when I departed transition.  Except for whatever reason the strap on it had expanded to support that of a water buffalo.  And have you ever tried adjusting one of those things while running? 

It took me a full mile to get it so it would actually stay around my waist.  But that kept me occupied.  And the first mile was knocked out at a 6:26 pace (actually, slightly faster since I forgot to start my watch the first tenth).  From there, it was a slow descending spiral of mile splits.  Not one of my best run performance by any means (sure, best PR in a HIM – but over 10 minutes off my half-marathon PR).  Note the below graph.

So you may be asking yourself what happened at mile 9?  Well, two things.  Actually three.  I took off my HRM.  It was so tight it was actually starting to hurt, really distracting me.  I took a bit of cola.  And…I walked for 45 seconds to drink said cola.  After all three things (primarily the HRM removal), I felt much better.  And you can see splits slowly get faster from there on out.

(Another photo from ASI, not exactly stylish looking though)

I’m definitely NOT a fan of the multi-lap run courses.  I’m clearly an out and back kinda guy.  Heading out on the second lap of the run course was depressing.  Especially since it was slowly rolling elevation changes (I can’t call them hills, they weren’t – they were just annoying).

In summary

Swim: 33:31 (1:41/100 yards)
T1: 2:52
Bike: 2:57:43 (19 MPH)
T2: 2:09
Run: 1:36:21 (7:22/mile)

Overall: 5:12:36

I finished with an overall PR – by about 10 minutes.  But I didn’t finish where I wanted.  I was about 12 minutes slower than I had anticipated.  Mostly the fault of my bike performance, but also a breakdown on the run.  The direct sun/heat certainly played a part in the run.  But I’m not concerned about that – another few weeks in DC and it will be much warmer and I’ll acclimate to that and get the run back to where it was in November.  And I did only start running 6 weeks ago after 3 months off due to knee injury, so I’m guessing that played into it some.

Most of all I really need to get my aero position sorted out.  That was the major differentiator today in my overall time.  It honestly should have been 15-20 minutes lower.  This is simply a matter of HTFU and do longer aero rides where it’s truly nonstop aero.

But…despite that – it was a good & fun day.  A bit of a learning day.  And in many ways, that’s why I flew all the way out to San Diego for this race.  I wanted an early season half-iron race to both force me to train all winter, but also to provide a bit of a early season litmus test about 5 months out from Ironman.  And that I did.  I have a huge list (click here to see my shorthand version) of things that I can work on/did right.  I write up one after every race and make it a point to review them all before each race – attempting to avoid making the same mistakes twice.

After I was done hobbling around the food tent, I took a quick dip in the water.  Damn, it was seriously not that cold in the morning (although with a wetsuit).

(An unexpected wave hit me right as I took the photo, and the freezing cold water went to a location where the sun don’t shine)

Oh, and I had one of the many SPECATACULAR & AMAZING volunteers take my photo before I packed everything up.

Last…but certainly not least – let me give a huge shoutout to Monica and Ryan – both of which came out and watched the race, and shouted much needed encouragement.  There was also others that I knew, but couldn’t remember their names from the lunch the day before that were out there helping out.  Thanks for coming out!

Next up – Wildflower 70.3 in a month!

(P.S. – I’ll be adding some more photos from the race in here as I get them, so if you’re reading this in a reader, click the link to see if any new photos are there)

Oceanside 70.3 Race Report (aka: There be big hills in California) 0

Remember yesterday’s post about how the Oceanside area is beautiful?  Well, it is – that’s still true.  Except, I probably should have withheld a bit of judgement until AFTER I had to cycle over 56 miles of hills.  In.the.wind.

With that, here’s the run down.

Swim:

I’m slowly starting to get down the whole art of arrival into transition area at a reasonable time.  I used to get in WAY to early and was standing around bored.  Now I’m getting it a bit closer.  The organizers here clearly have their stuff together.  There were no lines for anything such as body marking or entry into transition area (despite having 2,000 people milling about).  Well, there were short lines for the bathrooms right before start.  But umm…cold water..wetsuit warmer?

(Moments before the pro’s started, the singing of the National Anthem)
I got setup pretty quickly in what clearly the most ghetto pre-determined slot available.  There were actually garbage cans in my slot (which we moved).  The good part of having a slot up against the fence is you can just lean your bike there instead of battling with the bar trying to get it out/in. 

(My bike spot’s sprawling estate - taken afterwards)

Oh right…the swim…

I swam. Really, how much more can you say about the swim?  Ok, I guess I can say more.  The swim is in a protected harbor/channel, the ‘start’ is about 100 yards from where you get in the water.  THAT WAS AWESOME!  You get a short warm-up, and your body adjusts to the 59* water.  Once you got there, you had about a minute to chill. 

I stared off on the front edge and then slowly drifted in behind once the local swim-boys got out and about.  I didn’t have too many issues with sighting, the buoys were plentiful and colorful.  As we made the turn back there’s a section that’s fairly exposed to some of the inbound waves.  This created some fun rollers.  Although, judging by the ‘carnage’ out there, most people didn’t find it fun.  Many swimmers littered about looking confused, tired and seasick (it was a bit tricky sighting over the rollers).  I just pressed on.  The last 100 yards or so into arriving back was a bit messy.  It was like being at the start again, lots of kicking/pushing/etc… Oh well.

T1 was relatively uneventful.  It’s a long run, maybe 2 minutes.  I started off from the water running what had to have been a 4/min sprint pace down the carpet.  Not sure why, my body was just thrilled to be running and not a fish anymore.

(Photo from Monica, it’s kinda funny the expression I have on my face.)

The Bike:

The bike course is incredibly scenic.  It wanders up the coast for a while, and then eventually turns into Camp Pendleton (Marine Corps Base) and up into ‘the hills’.

(From ASI photo, somewhere near the start)

The first part of the course I was cruising, averaging in the 20-21MPH range, and easily 22+ on the flats.  Down in aero and life was grand.  Well, except for the fact that my stomach was staging a strike for the first 30 miles.  That’s fine, I brought in scab labor instead (water bottles from the Marines).  Stomach: 0 Me: 1.

At around the 30 mile marker it occurred to me that I was slowly working me way along a bit of a valley floor, and that the only way out was up via a big ass hill.  The kinda hill you see little ‘ants’ in the distance slowly going up.  The kinda hill where your top speed is 6.2MPH.  The kinda hill that…I actually enjoyed.  Why?  Because my back and stomach were much happier with me standing up.  So I got 6-8 minutes to stand up.  And then you got to go down the backside hill, at 35MPH. Woohoo!

The woohoo was short lived.  There was another hill.  And another…and another.  Ok, note do self – I need more hill work.  But more than hill work – I need more aero work.  Like hours upon hours of straight hour.  My back was the single biggest limiter after about 90-120 minutes of aero.

People were complaining about the high winds…but honestly, I didn’t notice.  After the last two weeks’s worth of cycling training rides – this wind was nothing (although it clearly slowed me down on course, Mr. GPS tells me that).

(Photo courtesy ASI photography, at around the 15-20 mile marker)

Oh…I almost forgot.  I got an aero water bottle for Christmas, and got it all hooked up last night before the race.  Except I never quite tried it out before hand.  Which was too bad really.  Cause I would have realized that the straw (even using the long one) was too short, thus I couldn’t extract any liquid from said bottle – defeating the whole purpose of having an easy to access water bottle.  Doh, lesson learned.

After 56 miles of joyful time spent with my trusty Fuji (and no flat tires this time!), it was off to the run.

Run

Sure, like everyone I have a big checklist of things that I pack – all separated out by sport.  On that list was race belt.  And don’t worry, the race belt was with me when I departed transition.  Except for whatever reason the strap on it had expanded to support that of a water buffalo.  And have you ever tried adjusting one of those things while running? 

It took me a full mile to get it so it would actually stay around my waist.  But that kept me occupied.  And the first mile was knocked out at a 6:26 pace (actually, slightly faster since I forgot to start my watch the first tenth).  From there, it was a slow descending spiral of mile splits.  Not one of my best run performance by any means (sure, best PR in a HIM – but over 10 minutes off my half-marathon PR).  Note the below graph.

So you may be asking yourself what happened at mile 9?  Well, two things.  Actually three.  I took off my HRM.  It was so tight it was actually starting to hurt, really distracting me.  I took a bit of cola.  And…I walked for 45 seconds to drink said cola.  After all three things (primarily the HRM removal), I felt much better.  And you can see splits slowly get faster from there on out.

(Another photo from ASI, not exactly stylish looking though)

I’m definitely NOT a fan of the multi-lap run courses.  I’m clearly an out and back kinda guy.  Heading out on the second lap of the run course was depressing.  Especially since it was slowly rolling elevation changes (I can’t call them hills, they weren’t – they were just annoying).

In summary

Swim: 33:31 (1:41/100 yards)
T1: 2:52
Bike: 2:57:43 (19 MPH)
T2: 2:09
Run: 1:36:21 (7:22/mile)

Overall: 5:12:36

I finished with an overall PR – by about 10 minutes.  But I didn’t finish where I wanted.  I was about 12 minutes slower than I had anticipated.  Mostly the fault of my bike performance, but also a breakdown on the run.  The direct sun/heat certainly played a part in the run.  But I’m not concerned about that – another few weeks in DC and it will be much warmer and I’ll acclimate to that and get the run back to where it was in November.  And I did only start running 6 weeks ago after 3 months off due to knee injury, so I’m guessing that played into it some.

Most of all I really need to get my aero position sorted out.  That was the major differentiator today in my overall time.  It honestly should have been 15-20 minutes lower.  This is simply a matter of HTFU and do longer aero rides where it’s truly nonstop aero.

But…despite that – it was a good & fun day.  A bit of a learning day.  And in many ways, that’s why I flew all the way out to San Diego for this race.  I wanted an early season half-iron race to both force me to train all winter, but also to provide a bit of a early season litmus test about 5 months out from Ironman.  And that I did.  I have a huge list (click here to see my shorthand version) of things that I can work on/did right.  I write up one after every race and make it a point to review them all before each race – attempting to avoid making the same mistakes twice.

After I was done hobbling around the food tent, I took a quick dip in the water.  Damn, it was seriously not that cold in the morning (although with a wetsuit).

(An unexpected wave hit me right as I took the photo, and the freezing cold water went to a location where the sun don’t shine)

Oh, and I had one of the many SPECATACULAR & AMAZING volunteers take my photo before I packed everything up.

Last…but certainly not least – let me give a huge shoutout to Monica and Ryan – both of which came out and watched the race, and shouted much needed encouragement.  There was also others that I knew, but couldn’t remember their names from the lunch the day before that were out there helping out.  Thanks for coming out!

Next up – Wildflower 70.3 in a month!

(P.S. – I’ll be adding some more photos from the race in here as I get them, so if you’re reading this in a reader, click the link to see if any new photos are there)

Let the games begin! 16

I arrived relatively late (ok, technically really early – 1:15AM) last night into the Oceanside area - about 30 minutes north of San Diego.  This where tomorrow 2,000 less than smart people will set off onto a 70.3 mile journey of joy (instead of just enjoying the beach).  I am one of those peoples.

I had three activities planned for today:

• 45 minute bike ride
• 1,000 yard easy swim
• Pickup my packet

As you can see from above - this race doesn't really have a taper for me.  It's in many ways just another training weekend.  My coach and I only tweaked two workouts (Thurs/Friday) - otherwise the rest of my week was normal. Obviously the weekend load will have less because the race is less than I would normally train, but the added physical stress of a race will make up for it.

Oh…and I had to put my bike back together in a way that roughly resembled how it was before I took it apart.  Happy to say that worked out.

(Yes, you’re really in awe of that stylish hotel carpet…just admit it)

Bike Ride

I forgot how much I enjoy California.  It's so nice to be able to bike aimlessly in this area and the scenery is incredible.  But more importantly – I met up with blogger Monica to do a nice little 45 or so minute ride.  She’s pretty cool, and pretty much exactly like she is in her blog.  We kept the ride to a short out and back, I was trying to keep it in Zone1/Zone2 – just easy.  The only problem is the roads out here are incredible – so you naturally go faster than you probably should.  If you have a chance to go on a ride or run with Monica – you definitely should take advantage of it.  Plus, I was sneaky enough to get her to tow the line into the wind on the way back.  :)

(Here’s Monica as we turned back towards Oceanside)

The Expo and Packet Pickup

As an interlude after lunch it was time to pick up my packet and swing through the expo.  (Note, you first have to navigate through bikini clad chicks everywhere, major distraction).  Normally I don’t buy much more than a sticker or two.  I failed miserably today in that respect.  I bought both an aero helmet and a new tri suit.  Oh well…my hotel was super-cheap, so it kinda makes up for it.

Here’s my number – I’m now official!  Btw, they give you a crap-load of sticky numbers.  I have enough to plaster every surface on my bike with them.

Floating in the sea:

While one could go to a pool, it’s much more fun to swim in the open ocean.  The only catch is that the area where the race is tomorrow is closed off – so we had to battle the surf and get out a ways first.  But it was so much fine.  Did a quick 15 or so minute swim parallel to the beach and then just hung out a bit and floated out there.  Then we came back and just chilled on the grass (pictured below), people watching.  This area rocks!  I want to move here.

Tomorrow's Goal
Sub-5.  Based on my numbers, that should be achievable barring any complete failures in two or more sports.  I won't post my predicted time here, but usually I'm within about 1-2 minutes.  If I posted it, then it wouldn't happen.  Duh. :)

The season kicks off in just a few hours and I'm super-excited about it.  Should be a blast!  With that...let the games begin! 

Let the games begin! 0

I arrived relatively late (ok, technically really early – 1:15AM) last night into the Oceanside area - about 30 minutes north of San Diego.  This where tomorrow 2,000 less than smart people will set off onto a 70.3 mile journey of joy (instead of just enjoying the beach).  I am one of those peoples.

I had three activities planned for today:

• 45 minute bike ride
• 1,000 yard easy swim
• Pickup my packet

As you can see from above - this race doesn't really have a taper for me.  It's in many ways just another training weekend.  My coach and I only tweaked two workouts (Thurs/Friday) - otherwise the rest of my week was normal. Obviously the weekend load will have less because the race is less than I would normally train, but the added physical stress of a race will make up for it.

Oh…and I had to put my bike back together in a way that roughly resembled how it was before I took it apart.  Happy to say that worked out.

(Yes, you’re really in awe of that stylish hotel carpet…just admit it)

Bike Ride

I forgot how much I enjoy California.  It's so nice to be able to bike aimlessly in this area and the scenery is incredible.  But more importantly – I met up with blogger Monica to do a nice little 45 or so minute ride.  She’s pretty cool, and pretty much exactly like she is in her blog.  We kept the ride to a short out and back, I was trying to keep it in Zone1/Zone2 – just easy.  The only problem is the roads out here are incredible – so you naturally go faster than you probably should.  If you have a chance to go on a ride or run with Monica – you definitely should take advantage of it.  Plus, I was sneaky enough to get her to tow the line into the wind on the way back.  :)

(Here’s Monica as we turned back towards Oceanside)

The Expo and Packet Pickup

As an interlude after lunch it was time to pick up my packet and swing through the expo.  (Note, you first have to navigate through bikini clad chicks everywhere, major distraction).  Normally I don’t buy much more than a sticker or two.  I failed miserably today in that respect.  I bought both an aero helmet and a new tri suit.  Oh well…my hotel was super-cheap, so it kinda makes up for it.

Here’s my number – I’m now official!  Btw, they give you a crap-load of sticky numbers.  I have enough to plaster every surface on my bike with them.

Floating in the sea:

While one could go to a pool, it’s much more fun to swim in the open ocean.  The only catch is that the area where the race is tomorrow is closed off – so we had to battle the surf and get out a ways first.  But it was so much fine.  Did a quick 15 or so minute swim parallel to the beach and then just hung out a bit and floated out there.  Then we came back and just chilled on the grass (pictured below), people watching.  This area rocks!  I want to move here.

Tomorrow's Goal
Sub-5.  Based on my numbers, that should be achievable barring any complete failures in two or more sports.  I won't post my predicted time here, but usually I'm within about 1-2 minutes.  If I posted it, then it wouldn't happen.  Duh. :)

The season kicks off in just a few hours and I'm super-excited about it.  Should be a blast!  With that...let the games begin! 

Busy Busy Bumble Bee 12

Today was nothing short of long.  Not quite exhausting though - just tiring.  So much stuff packed into so little time.

Up at 5:35AM to catch a 6:55AM flight from Reagan National Airport to Atlanta.  The cool part about DCA is how darn quick it is.  Out of the shower and out of the garage in 15 minutes, the drive to the airport only took 12 minutes.  I was parked less than 50 feet from the skybridge to the terminal.  Mr. Checkin machine and a 2 minute trip through TSA-land later and I was at my gate by 6:15AM (remember, I was sleeping comfortably at 5:34AM).  I love DCA!

(Da Plane Boss!  Da Plane!)

From there, arrival in Atlanta and zipped off to the location where I had to give a speech/presentation at a conference.  After my  session, it was back to the airport to fly back to DC.  I only had 90 minutes from when my session ended to when my flight departed (including driving 25 minutes and dropping off a rental car).  But I managed to make it without issue and have time to grab a smoothie.  Oh, and the best part of all was the fact that as I left the conference center in Atlanta - I saw the below truck again (my most favorite truck ever).  You know what that's a sign of.

My flight was late by 25 minutes, which made me a few minutes late to meet up with a friend to go running at 6:30PM at Gravely Park, right next to the airport.  I changed from work attire to running attire in my car - sketchy yet functional  By now you're probably learning I schedule things REALLY REALLY close, especially travel.  99.99% of the time it works out.  The other .01% of the time...life happens.

Speaking of life happening - as I was changing I realized I didn't bring any running socks.  Doh.  So I had to wear what I had on. I.am.fashion.  Since I had a bike immediately following - I figured might as well keep the same socks as opposed to dirtying another pair.

(My 'athletic' socks, running & cycling shoes)

We ended up running a wee bit longer than I intended.  It was fully my fault - I was determined to get to a certain semi-scenic location on an otherwise non-scenic (but different) route.  We ran just short of a half marathon (11.71 miles).  It should be noted at this point that a taper clearly isn't in order for this weekends' HIM race.

It's funny to think I could accidentally run a half marathon - and not feel a thing afterwards.  You kinda have to step back and think about it sometimes and realize how different so many of us are compared to the fitness level of the 'average American'.  We train so often that we often times just look at our performance and become disappointed when we don't do well or have a bad day...sometimes one just has to step back and realize what you're really accomplishing.

Anyway...

By this point it's 8:20PM.  And it's time to get my bike in.  So I zip home and jump on the trainer and give it a whirl.  As usual, a mix of everything from high wattage to high cadence to the evil one-legged drills.  Thankfully Mr. Tivo was doing his job and so I was able to watch American Idol in the exact amount of time I spent on my bike (skipping commercials).  That worked out well.  And it's good that Kristy Lee Cook is still on...cause she's hot (and from the Northwest..and hot).

After that...it was time to eat. (For those keeping track, by now after addressing some work e-mails, it's 10:30PM before I start eating).  I downed half a jug of chocolate milk (3 glasses) when I realized I should probably stop.  And I made chicken nuggets from a bag.  Just so you don't think I create fanciful dinners every night.  Sometimes all I have time for is 10-12 minutes at 450*.  Life happens there too.

Oh...and after all of that, I wandered out to the mailbox and found I won an award at work...with cash.  Wootage!